One batter into Tuesday's game, you knew it was going to be a long, historic and strikeout-filled night for Clayton Kershaw at Dodger Stadium.

Danny Espinosa, the Washington Nationals' leadoff hitter, looked at four pitches without swinging his bat. Two were called strikes; two were balls off the plate that an umpire with a larger strike zone than Ted Barrett might have liked. The count was 2-2.

Kershaw's fifth pitch was filthy: A slider that looked like a beach-ball sized fastball until it bent over the inside corner at Espinosa's knees at 84 mph. The right-hander swung and missed.

Kershaw established that his best breaking pitch was at his disposal. He struck out 10 more batters - six in a row at one point - before leaving in the ninth inning of the Dodgers' 2-0 win over Washington.

The win was nice. The Dodgers, who have won three games all month, needed it badly.

"There's no secret behind that," Kershaw said.

But five pitches into the game, the 25-year-old left-hander made history that will be remembered longer than Tuesday's final score.

Kershaw surpassed the 1,000-inning mark by striking out Espinosa, and so became the owner of the lowest career earned-run average of any starting pitcher with at least 1,000 innings pitched since 1920. His 2.70 career ERA is a shade better than Whitey Ford's 2.75.

The left-hander fell one out shy of his second shutout this season, but only because of pitch count - a career-high 132. The announced crowd of 51,729 didn't have that number handy with two outs in the ninth inning, but Don Mattingly did. The Dodgers manager was booed roundly as he came to replace Kershaw with Kenley Jansen.

"That wasn't hard," Mattingly said. "Hopefully the fans, however many years (Kershaw) is here, will appreciate that he keeps pitching."

Kershaw didn't fight it. The boos turned to cheers as he left the mound.

"Donnie made the right move," he said.

Kershaw threw 96 of his career-high 132 pitches for strikes. Kershaw walked one, allowed five hits and was only threatened once in 83 innings, when the Nationals loaded the bases in the first inning.

Other than Ryan Zimmerman, who went 3 for 3, Washington stood little chance against Kershaw, who checked off a few more milestones:

He has allowed three or fewer earned runs in 21 consecutive starts, the longest active streak in the majors and the longest such streak for a Dodger since Doug Rau in 1975-76. Kershaw last allowed more than three runs on July 24, 2012, at St. Louis.

Kershaw lowered his earned-run average to 1.40, the lowest mark in the major leagues. He ranks second in the National League in strikeouts (67), third in WHIP (0.86) and second in wins above replacement 2.3.

Mattingly said Kershaw will get an extra day of rest, rather than pitch five days from now in Atlanta, to take advantage of an off-day in the schedule Thursday.

"I feel fine," Kershaw said after racking up his record-high pitch count. "I don't feel any different. Tomorrow is when you usually feel it."

Kershaw also touched off a two-run third inning when was hit by a pitch in his foot by Nationals right-hander Dan Haren (4-4). With one out, Matt Kemp singled to put runners on first and second base. It also gave Kemp one hit in his past 13 games.

Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch, and Andre Ethier delivered with a two-out single up the middle to drive in the only runs of the game.

Mattingly tweaked the lineup by hitting Kemp second for the first time since September 2010. Adrian Gonzalez - whose hitting streak ended at 10 games - hit third, Ethier hit cleanup and A.J. Ellis batted fifth.

The way Kershaw was dealing, it didn't matter what order they lined up in.